Sig Christenson is a veteran military reporter who has made nine trips to the war zone. He writes regularly for Hearst about service members, veterans and heroes, among other topics. He is also the co-founder and former president of Military Reporters and Editors, founded in 2002.

Coast Guard

04/27/2012

Jim Rendon was adrift as a senior at Antonian College Preparatory in 1979, sure he'd go to college but uncertain of much else until talking one day with his mother.

“My mom said, ‘Well, if you don't know what you want to do, why don't you follow your brother?'” he said.

Rendon decided to follow his older brother, Rich, into the Coast Guard Academy and did well. He's now a rear admiral based in Honolulu, where he took command Thursday of the Joint Interagency Task Force West, which combats drug-related organized crime. He's the fourth Hispanic admiral in the Coast Guard's history.

“How did that happen?” he asked. “I don't have a good answer for you.”

It started with parents who had long ties to the military as civil service workers. A sophomore at the academy when Jim graduated from high school, Rich Rendon spent a summer aboard the Barque Eagle, the military's only active commissioned sailing vessel.

Duty there is a defining moment for cadets and officer candidates. Some wash out, but for Jim and Rich Rendon, and a younger brother, John, it helped transform their lives.

There's much to learn on a ship with hundreds of ropes, each of them with a name and specific function, and while the brothers struggled, they also fell in love with it.